Chômage structurel et capacités de production. Une approche théorique de moyenne-longue période

The theory of equilibrium unemployment refers to the wage-price loop, but so far, more attention has been paid to the wage than to the price equation. The model presented hereafter deals with the symmetric influences of the unemployment rate on wage setting and of the utilization rate on price setting. Unemployment splits into an « unemployment of full capacity » and another component, depending on social bargaining. It results that economic policies, as far as they have an impact on the maximal production capacity, are not neutral for the equilibrium unemployment rate (nor for the equilibrium utilization rate). This analysis suggests that fighting against unemployment does not require only structural measures related to wage setting ; it could be more efficient and less costly from a social point of view to make structural measures aimed at increasing productive investments.JEL codes : E22, E23, E24, E12.